160 The Alligator and Its Allies 



a thick horny layer, h, in which no nuclei can be 

 seen. The cells of the horny layer are flattened into 

 mere fibers, which, at places, are seen projecting 



from the sur- 

 face. The bound- 

 ary between the 

 horny cells and 

 those beneath is 

 quite distinct, 

 though perhaps 

 not quite so sharp 

 as shown in the 

 figure under dis- 

 cussion. 



In a previous 

 paper, the writer 

 noted that the 

 dorsum of the 

 tongue is covered 



with small, evenly distributed papillae, easily seen 

 by aid of a hand lens. These so-called papillae 

 are here seen to be hardly papillae at all, but small 

 folds or wrinkles, although the epithelium is some- 

 what thickened at intervals. No glands are to be 

 seen in this region of the tongue. 



The only difference between the anterior region 

 of the tongue during hibernation and during the 

 feeding season seems to be in the scaly layer of the 

 epithelium. Instead of the compact, sharply dif- 

 ferentiated layer of scaly cells seen in Figure 36, 



FIG. 36. The covering of the anterior re- 

 gion of the tongue of the hibernating animal, 

 under fairly high magnification; the plane of 

 this section is not shown in Figure 35; a, 

 areolar tissue; e, epithelium; h, horny layer 

 of epithelium. 



